We woke to another gorgeous day Tuesday. The trend recently is for great weather through the week and rain on the weekends...not very nice for the weekend campers that come out for a short get away.

Today Steve decided to start on his "to-do" list...first on the agenda was to change the anode in the hot water tank. {Reminder: Click on pictures to enlarge}

Old anode was replaced 16 months ago...should be done at least once a year.

This spray wand is designed to flush sediment out of the H/W tank...

Just takes a couple of minutes and does a great job...

Flushed out chunks of calcium deposits that looks like rock salt...

After he was finished outside, he decided to work on the hot water tank inside. Although the only evidence of a leak was a slight build up of calcium deposits on the fittings with no moisture present he thought he would take it all apart and clean it up. He placed the plastic union fitting in full strength CLR and it did diddly squat! Remember those TV adds with the shower head or filter bubbling away...must be time laps photography. Well, sometimes I guess one should leave well enough alone...because the fitting looked a little funky when he was threading it back into the check valve. On the one side it appeared that some of the threads were moving while some of them weren't when he was tightening it. He removed it and it looked normal??? Consequently, he had to head out to buy a new one...and of course, that ended up being a pain as he wanted a brass fitting instead of plastic. He found a brass union fitting but discovered that it didn't have an interior flare to match up with the plastic fitting it had to thread onto.So after 3 stops, he finally found a replacement.

Deb and Ray had invited us down to their place for happy hour at 3:00. Well Steve didn't get back until 2:40 so I walked down to let them know that we may be a little late. As it turned out, things went fairly smoothly with the new fitting and we were only about 10 minutes late...although Steve wanted to keep an eye out for leaks. It was weeping ever so slightly so not wanting to over tighten a plastic fitting he walked back numerous times to check on it...tightening it a little each time until it was dry.

Deb and Ray did up chicken satay and veggies on the grill...delicious! Thanks guys...you went way above the usual food fare served at our happy hours...and no dinner to cook tonight...bonus!!

After our usual start to the day on Wednesday, Steve decided to try out some new rotator-cuff exercises for his arm...that took awhile. He also required my help for a few of the exercises...I had to be the "door knob" for the other end of the stretchy cords (LOL!) Afterwards, he had his shower and some breakfast...then it was time for our 3.6 mile/5.8 km power walk. I decided to have my shower after our walk since I tend to work up a good sweat and to shower beforehand seems rather pointless.

That afternoon I walked into town to pick up a couple of things for happy hour this afternoon, while Steve puttered around the trailer and then settled in the shade for a little reading. Shortly before 3:00 Ray and Deb arrived...time for our last happy hour together as they are leaving tomorrow. We enjoyed our visit with them and look forward to our paths crossing again...and more happy hours!

Thursday we took the boat out on the Fraser River...it hadn't been in the water since last summer! The weather forecast was for another beautiful day with the high 27C/80F. Unfortunately, the blue sky we woke too became hazy most of the day and was rather cool with the breeze as we sped along the river.
Fort Langley free boat launch...

Steve decided to head east, going up-river, just in case we had trouble with the boat motor since it hadn't been run for so long...we could always float back with the current. This is the bridge from Fort Langley across to Brae Island and Fort Camping. The Fort Pub is on the left...

The tip of Brae Island on the left...

Fort Langley Airstrip for land and float planes...

Looking back at Brae Island...

That's Crescent Island behind me...

Lougheed Hwy Bridge...

End of Crescent Island on the right with Mt. Baker, Washington State in the distance...

Queen of Sidney...an old BC Ferry...along with other rather derelict boats...

Matsqui Island...

Mission Bridge...

We stopped for lunch at the tip of Matsqui Island...

Four parachutists...

Ready to cast off and head back...

Inside channel of Matsqui Island on the right...

Inside channel of Crescent Island on the right...

Tree in bloom...

Yeehaw!

Quite the obstacle course... lots of floating trees, logs and branches from the spring runoff...

Copter has landed at the Fort Langley Airstrip...

Fishing guides waiting for the bus to drop off their clients. There were another 4 boats to the right of the Fort Langley boat launch...

We continued past the boat launch and went under the bridge...

Rowing Club Docks...

It was going on 3:00 when we were back at the boat launch taking the boat out of the water and loading it back onto the truck...

The following is a map showing where we started at Brae Island...past Crescent Island...to Matsqui Island and Mission Bridge...a total of 24 miles/38.6 kms return...

Although it basically remained hazy all day, it did get hot. Once home we put everything away and then sat outside relaxing. RV's were already starting to pull in for the long weekend...it's going to be busy around here with all campsites booked!

Banff

About Us

We married in 1982 and our sons, Rob and Chris were born in 1983 and 1985. In 1990 we built our dream home in North Saanich just north of Victoria BC on 1.21 acres. We both had long careers, Dianne in Human Resources and Steve as Branch Manager for a controls systems wholesaler.
Steve always felt that there were no guarantees in life as far as health and mortality went, so we planned to retire early and RV full-time.
In late 2009 we began the build process on our custom Toy Hauler truck, taking delivery in early 2010. We moved into our new Montana 5th wheel in Feb 2010, living in it for 4 months while still working. In May 2010 we purchased 2 Yamaha Grizzly 550 ATVs. We're ready!
Just shy of our 55th birthdays, on June 25, 2010 we retired and started our life as gypsies.
We prefer dry camping (boondocking), getting as far away from civilization as possible. However, our size limits us from getting into all of those remote areas. Good thing we have the ATVs to explore with.